From Russia with zombies

The image of East European gangs peddling ecstasy, breaking legs and refusing to use razors is a valid one, but the gangs of the former Soviet Union are also adept at peddling computer viruses, breaking your computer and refusing to use restraint.

The pattern of cyber-attacks is changing.

In the past, the targets were us. Now, it’s their own people.

That’s the conclusion of a new report that says Russian cyber gangs, now focusing on domestic victims, have penetrated the government and corporate worlds.

First, the gangs send out trojans via various means — infected files on sharing networks, phishing Web pages, gamey email, etc — and take over hundreds of thousands of computers, turning them into sleeper cell computers.

Once that happens, Krebs writes: “...cyber gangsters demand tens of thousands of dollars in protection money from businesses. If the businesses refuse to pay, the criminals order hundreds or thousands of compromised computers that they control to flood the Web sites with meaningless traffic, crippling the businesses and preventing legitimate visitors from transacting with the sites.”

Studies by McAfee show compromised computers at more than a dozen major financial institutions and government agencies have been involved in these attacks.

This once again shows that the money you pay for an anti-virus/anti spyware subscription will be the best money you spend.